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gstack/docs/TESTING_INTERNALS.md
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Garry TanandClaude Fable 5 07c2452e6d feat: delete the legacy 17-row eval matrix — the sliced lane is the only paid lane
Every PR paid twice: the hand-enumerated matrix (18 test files, 22.6 min,
~$21 API measured on run 33263204465) ran serialized AHEAD of the strictly
superior sliced lane via 'needs: evals' — 35.5 min wall and ~2x paid spend
for the same diff. 14 of 17 rows carried no tier:, so periodic Opus
benchmarks leaked into every PR (the e2e-plan row alone: 12/12 tests,
21.7 min, $7.28 — the wall-clock bound of ALL of CI).

Parity receipt (static, pre-deletion): the sliced lane's gate census (49
files, derived from the runner itself) strictly contains all 18 matrix test
files, plus 31 files the matrix never ran. Pure deletion — one revert
restores it. The PR comment moved into slices-report (same '## E2E Evals'
upsert marker, now sourced from slice artifacts + carrying the fail-closed
reconciliation verdict). plan-slices loses the needs edge; the dead
workflow-level EVALS_TIER env goes with it.

test/evals-workflow-matrix.test.ts (and its KNOWN_MATRIX_GAPS /
KNOWN_TIER_UNSET burn-down ratchets — retired: the sliced census makes
'every gate file runs' true by construction) is rewritten as
test/evals-workflow-wiring.test.ts: matrix stays deleted, planner/executor/
report tier + slice-count agreement, both surviving lanes on the shared
register-skills composite with its fail-fast verification loop, PR comment
survival. Expected: PR eval wall 35.5 -> ~13 min, per-PR paid spend ~halved.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-31 04:20:40 +00:00

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# Testing internals: env keys, hermetic E2E
Moved verbatim from CLAUDE.md (token-load reduction). Read this before
writing or debugging E2E tests, passing `env:` to a runner, or touching
`test/helpers/hermetic-env.ts`.
**Env keys in Conductor workspaces.** The `GSTACK_*` env-shim (v1.39.2.0+,
`lib/conductor-env-shim.ts`) promotes `GSTACK_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` /
`GSTACK_OPENAI_API_KEY` to their canonical names inside gstack's TS binaries.
Tests run through gstack entrypoints inherit this promotion automatically.
Don't echo the key value to stdout, logs, or shell history. The historical
"never pass `env:` to `runAgentSdkTest`" rule is retired: the failure was
partial-env replacement (the SDK's `Options.env` REPLACES the child's entire
environment, so an object without the key broke auth). The runner now always
passes a COMPLETE hermetic env with per-test `env:` merged last, so per-test
overrides are safe; ambient `process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` mutation also
still works (the env builder reads process.env at call time).
**Hermetic local E2E (default).** Every E2E runner (claude -p, PTY, Agent
SDK, codex, gemini) spawns children through `test/helpers/hermetic-env.ts`:
allowlist-scrubbed env (operator `CONDUCTOR_*`, `CLAUDE_*`, `GSTACK_*`,
`MCP_*`, `GBRAIN_*`, and credentials like `GH_TOKEN` never reach children),
a fresh seeded `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` (no operator `~/.claude` CLAUDE.md /
MCP servers / skills), a temp `GSTACK_HOME`, and `--strict-mcp-config`.
Local eval signal matches CI. Debug against real operator state with
`EVALS_HERMETIC=0` (restores the legacy env AND drops the strict-MCP flag).
Per-test `env:` overrides merge last, so deliberate contamination
(`CONDUCTOR_WORKSPACE_PATH`, per-test `GSTACK_HOME`) keeps working. The
hermetic config dir seeds NO skills by default; a PTY test that types a
`/skill` slash command must pass `seedSkills: true` to the PTY runner, which
points the child's `CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR` at `hermeticSkillsConfigDir()` — a
seeded registry that symlinks the LIVE working tree's SKILL.md files (by
design: the skills ARE the subject under test; a snapshot would measure stale
copies). Wiring is pinned by `test/hermetic-wiring.test.ts` (static tripwire),
two gate-tier canaries in `test/skill-e2e-hermetic-canary.test.ts`, and the
seeding tripwires in `test/hermetic-skills-seeding.test.ts` /
`test/pty-skill-seeding-wiring.test.ts`.
E2E tests stream progress in real-time (tool-by-tool via `--output-format stream-json
--verbose`). Results are persisted to `~/.gstack/projects/<slug>/evals/` (legacy
fallback `~/.gstack-dev/evals/`) with auto-comparison
against the previous finalized run (in-flight `_partial` files are never used as
a baseline, so a run can't compare against itself).
## Runners: how the suites execute (2026-08 overhaul)
**Free suite (`bun run test:free`).** `scripts/test-free-shards.ts` runs N
concurrent shard processes (serial within each) with strict-output
classification per shard. Full-suite shards are packed by RECORDED PER-FILE
DURATIONS (LPT, `packShardsByDuration`) when the committed seed
`scripts/free-test-durations.json` exists — refresh it occasionally with
`bun run test:free --record-durations` (each file timed in its own child;
CI never records). Missing seed → silent hash-shard fallback; corrupt seed →
one warning + fallback; unknown files get 75th-percentile pessimism. Packed
shards get duration-aware walls (`max(base, predicted × 3)`); the `--shard`
CI-matrix path keeps stable hash indices untouched. `TREE_MUTATING` is EMPTY:
`gen-skill-docs.ts` has a `main()` guard (imports never regenerate; pinned by
`test/gen-skill-docs-import-purity.test.ts`) and `--out-dir` renders every
host, so all former mutators render into mkdtemps and the trailing serial
shard is gone. The map remains a mechanism — a test that genuinely must write
shared artifacts in place earns a reasoned entry and is serialized again.
**Paid suite (sharded runner, local AND CI).** `scripts/test-paid-shards.ts`
is the single selection engine: 1 file per shard, `EVALS_JOBS` shard
processes × `EVALS_CONCURRENCY` within-shard, per-shard `GSTACK_EVAL_DIR`,
full-stream spooling to per-shard log files (path printed at START and on
failure), never-started/timed-out taxonomy, and parent-computed diff
selection propagated to children via `EVALS_SELECTION_JSON` (fail-open: a
child that can't parse it recomputes locally with one warning). Retry parity
lives in `RETRY_OVERRIDES` (literals; old matrix rows' earned `retries: 2`).
**CI planner/executor/report.** `--emit-plan <path> --slices K` computes
selection + the slice plan ONCE (killing per-slice selector divergence);
`--plan <path> --slice i` executors consume the manifest and write
slice-result artifacts; `--report <dir>` reconciles them FAIL-CLOSED (a slice
whose artifact never landed, or a planned shard nobody reported, is a
failure). Under `EVALS_ALL` the hollow-shard guard marks exit-0 shards with
ZERO executed tests `passed-empty` (a failure) — census-health, not just
test runs. evals.yml runs the sliced gate lane per PR — the ONLY paid lane
since the legacy 17-row matrix (22.6 min/$21 per PR serialized ahead of the
slices) was deleted after demonstrated parity; its
`KNOWN_MATRIX_GAPS`/`KNOWN_TIER_UNSET` ratchets retired with it and
`test/evals-workflow-wiring.test.ts` pins the surviving wiring (slice-count
agreement, tier consistency, the shared register-skills composite with its
fail-fast verification loop). evals-periodic.yml runs ALL
periodic-tier files weekly (the coverage contract) minus the reasoned
exclusions in `test/helpers/periodic-exclude-data.ts` (reason + tracking
required per entry; removal re-activates the file), plus a weekly
`EVALS_ALL` gate census, plus a tracking-issue UPSERT on red weeks.
**Timeout policy.** Paid tests use the tiers in
`test/helpers/eval-budgets.ts` (JUDGE/CAPTURE/CAPTURE_LONG/PTY/PTY_LONG);
`test/eval-budgets-policy.test.ts` pins that every tier fits the shard wall
minus overhead and ratchets raw literals. Budget above the wall is fiction.
## Cloud sandboxes (Vercel / Conductor cloud workspaces)
Syscall-supervised sandboxes need environment setup before `bun run test` can
run green: run `scripts/sandbox-doctor.sh` once per boot. It documents and
treats the full failure taxonomy (missing /dev/fd, 64M /dev/shm, spurious
access(2) EACCES from the seccomp supervisor under load, full-capability
processes defeating chmod-denial tests, no X server, no git identity, and
Conductor's git-shim exit-code laundering). The doctor seeds `TMPDIR`,
`DISPLAY`, and the runner knobs into `~/.bashrc`, so open a new shell (or
`source ~/.bashrc`) before running the suite. Then:
```bash
setpriv --ambient-caps=-all --bounding-set=-all bun run test
```
Two runner knobs exist for these environments (both no-ops unless set):
`GSTACK_FREE_JOBS` overrides the shard count in either direction (2 is the measured sweet spot — one
serial mega-shard and 6-way sharding both saturate the per-process syscall
supervisor), and `GSTACK_FREE_RETRY_FLAKY=1` re-runs attributed failures once
serially, downgrading a clean retry to a loud FLAKY-PASS (capped at 5 files so
a broken tree can't masquerade as flaky).